Sunday, June 14, 2009

Yesterday we went on a tour of the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. In the above picture, the land just on the other side of the river is North Korea.

It was a long day! We left at 7 AM and didn't get back until almost 7PM. It was a really interesting trip. We learned about the Korean war, all about life in North Korea, and got to go into the conference room and stand on the North Korean side! So technically Joe and I have now been to North Korea!

We saw a North Korean soldier on their side of the line. He is the guy in the picture with the dark green uniform.In the above picture, the door immediately behind us goes into North Korea. We have heard stories of the North Korean soldiers pulling people through the door...fortunately they didn't want Joe or me!

The most interesting part of the tour was the story about Operation Paul Bunyan. Apparently several people were killed while trying to cut down a tree that blocked the view from one of the guard towers. It is a story that really emphasizes how retarded the North Koreans are. The UN officials went to go cut down the tree, the N. Koreans rushed out trying to stop them. They killed 2 UN men with an axe. Eventually to cut down the damned tree they had to have the entire Korean peninsula on red alert, tons of military special forces went in to take care of the tree. This is the site of the tree.Here's a picture of me on the UN side. The blue building to the left in the picture is the conference room. The two soldiers there are South Korean. Between the two buildings is a gravel strip that leads to the line between the two countries. The big building in the back is North Korean. If you enlarge the picture you can see the North Korean soldier on the top of the stairs.